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There have been a grand total of zero medals for Canadian ski-jumpers throughout the history of the Olympic Games.

In a sport that's been dominated by European nations -- the U.S. has only laid claim to one bronze, while Japan has done the best job keeping up with Europe, with nine medals -- since the very first Winter Olympics in 1924, Canada's never quite been able to make a mark.

That's why, while ski-jumping's national governing body receieves no Own the Podium funding and therefore doesn't have to formally set any goals for the Sochi Games, Ski Jumping Canada has made itself one simple goal.

"Our unofficial goal is we have the potential for a medal," said Curtis Lyon, Ski Jumping Canada's High Performance Director. "Basically, the athletes have to perform to the top of their abilities, which they've done through various points for the last two years, but they just need to put it together on game day."

The root of Canada's struggles on the international ski-jumping stage isn't hard to pinpoint. There's only one ski-jumping club in all of Canada.

That club operates out of Canada Olympic Park, and with an Olympic team that's comprised entirely of Calgary athletes, it's made it Cowtown vs. the World, for all intents and purposes.

Fortunately, that could change soon. On Jan. 23, it was announced that the Whistler Olympic Park will split National Training Centre duties with COP moving forward, a move that could introduce significantly more young athletes to the sport.

"The club in Whistler is going to be huge for us -- we can essentially double the capacity of the sport," Lyon said. "It's still small, but if we can add 30 or 50 kids, that's big for our development potential."

As it stands, the Canadian team is entering Sochi with high hopes. After a high-profile, but ultimately doomed, legal fight to have women's ski jumping included in the Vancouver Olympics four years ago, the International Olympic Committee added the sport to the Sochi roster.

Any of the three women set to represent Canada -- Atsuko Tanaka, Alexandra Pretorius and Taylor Henrich, all from Calgary -- could potentially break Canada's podium goose-egg, although the competition is fierce.

"It's been a great winter, and as we do better we increase our expectations," Lyon said. "We're not sitting back and being totally pleased, we're trying to get on the podium consistently and that's what we've been building to for the last couple years.

"Through our national sport organization, and with the Americans, we've really pushed for this sport to be in the Olympics.

"We feel this is the right time for the sport, and it's going to be the top-30 girls in the world and it's going to be a really good comp."

The men's team -- Calgarians Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, Dusty Korek and Trevor Morrice -- are in a similar position, with Lyon saying they're capable of contending for a podium as long as they get things right on the big day.